Welcome to the Fr. Kapaun Blog

Welcome to our Father Kapaun Blog. This Blog will be used to help provide information on the life and the hopeful canonization of Father Emil Kapaun. It will also provide an additional venue for announcements pertinent to Father Kapaun’s cause for sainthood to be made public. Check back often, we will add more content as we are able. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. We will respond as we are able. Please keep comments and questions pertinent to the topic of Father Kapaun and his canonization.

As this blog unfolds we will provide information on Father Kapaun’s life and also as in this first blog, we will provide some of Father Kapaun’s writings, mainly his letters and homilies. I will try to keep these writings accurate as to the style and content, thus you will see spelling and grammatical form that would have been popular at the time in history, 1930s through the 1950s. In this first homily you will notice the spelling of “Savior” as “Saviour.” There are also some differences in punctuation and grammar. These would have been homilies that Father Kapaun used in preaching at Mass so some of the punctuation may have been placed there to help him in that delivery.

I hope you enjoy this Blog as I certainly enjoy posting to it. I think you will be amazed as you begin to see the spirituality of Father Kapaun come through, and hopefully, you will see what a great impact it can have on your life. I will not comment on Father Kapaun’s writings except to explain some of the elements of our faith that are not commonly known. Today’s homily was given on Low Sunday, April 16, 1944. The homily was given at St. John Nepomucene Church in Pilsen, Kansas, this would have been prior to Father Kapaun leaving to serve in World War II. Low Sunday is the Second Sunday in the octave of Easter. The Church celebrates Easter as an octave, eight days, Easter then beginning with the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Masses being of primary importance and ending with the Second Sunday of Easter or Low Sunday. As many of you know, Low Sunday has now been given the designation of Divine Mercy Sunday.

Bring here thy finger, and see My Hands; and bring here thy hand, and put it into My Side, and be not unbelieving, but believing. John 20:27

These words which our Savior spoke were addressed directly to St. Thomas, the Apostle who had been absent when Jesus appeared to the Apostles the first time after his Resurrection.

Saint John, in his Holy Gospel, mentions that the Apostles were in the upper-room, that is, the Last Supper room, and that they had the heavy doors barred so that no one would be able to get in. The Apostles were afraid of the enemies of Jesus, for they had put Jesus to death, and only naturally those enemies would seek out the Apostles whom Jesus had chosen. It was already evening. The Apostles were gathered together in that room behind barred doors, when all of a sudden, Jesus came through the door without opening it, or without breaking it, and He stood before them. To the Apostles who were at the same time astonished and frightened Jesus said: “Peace be to you.” Then He showed them His Hands and His Side. The Apostles rejoiced to have Jesus living with them again. Jesus said to them again: “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” Then he breathed upon them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

In this joyful meeting between Jesus and His Apostles, several momentous things had taken place. First of all, the Apostles knew that no human body would be able to pass normally and naturally through a heavy door which was closed. In order for such a body to pass normally and naturally through such a door, the door had to be opened or broken. But here, before them, their very eyes showed them that Jesus had come into the room without opening that heavy door or breaking it down. At first they must have thought that He was only a spirit, but when He spoke to them and showed them His hands and side, there was no question left but that Jesus had His natural human body. The Apostles believed that our Saviour stood before them with His natural body even though they could not see how our Saviour could pass through that door with His natural human body. That was an act of faith which our Saviour demanded of His Apostles. And connected with that act of faith our Saviour said to them: “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”